Ballinamore club notes

November 21, 2017

Strictly Come Dancing

Over the years the club have hosted many events and have celebrated some amazing successes both on and off the pitch but this Strictly night will certainly live long in the memory and will be placed near the top of the pile.

The night itself exceeded our expectations and hopefully that of the more than 1700 people that attended , it was a night full of outstanding entertainment led by our immensely talented dancers, wonderful judges and of course our MC for the night John Lynch who helped pull it all together.

The effort, determination and skill of our dancers was a site to behold, after 8 intensive weeks of training they stepped out on the stage full of enthusiasm and without a nerve in sight to produce an outstanding show.

We must give a tremendous thank you to them, they have given up a vast amount of their time and energy to help make the night such a success ,many of them had no affiliation to the club but still stepped forward to support us and have now become lifelong friends.

To all our wonderful sponsors who supported the event on the night, their financial support was astounding and we are deeply grateful for everything that they have done for us. Again as with the dancers many of these companies and individuals had no affiliation to the club but when approached they stepped forward and gave freely. We ask all of our supporters to please support these businesses where possible, a full list will be published soon.

To the organising committee led by Ruairi O'Sullivan and Niall Gormley we must give a tremendous thank you, again as with the dancers they have put in a supreme effort to ensure the success of the night, they gave up so much of their free time over the last six months and again we are eternally grateful for the sacrifices they have made to ensure the wonderful outcome.

To our outstanding Judges and MC John Lynch we thank you for your amazing contribution in ensuring the nights success.

We must also thank all of our ticket sellers for going out on the dark evenings and selling the event, The Slieve Russell for letting us use their wonderful facility, our patrons that supported and attended our event, and to anyone else that has helped out in any way we also give thanks.

The night it's self was exhilarating with each of the 20 couples making a grandstand entrance before they made their way to the stage where they were introduced to the large crowd, after the introductions were completed each of the couples completed their routines before being judged. The dance routines completed by each of the couples were excellent, the effort and choreography were first class and the production values were certainly on a par or better than what you would see on BBC TV , while the group dance performed by the entire group was a site to behold.

The most difficult task of the night was certainly the one undertaken by our excellent Judges John Cryan, Erin Moran, Sarah McLoughlin and Neal Tully, the judges were certainly impressed by our dancers as much as we were and had the unenviable job of cutting the group down from twenty couples to five. After a great deal of debate the judges picked their final five couples which were Cathy Smyth and Jim Flynn, Caroline Martin and David McCabe, Katie Duignan and Philip Casserly, Claire Fanning and Ronan Tiernan, and finally Dennis Doonan and Siobhan McCartin.

With the final five picked it was all up to the dancers to take to the stage for one last time to strut their stuff in the hope of being crowned the Ballinamore Strictly champions 2017. After another exhilarating performance by the final five couples it was left to the judges to decide the winners.

After some time deliberating the decision it was left to John Lynch to deliver the verdict we were all waiting for, the first winners to be called out in two surprise categories were firstly Liam McGirl and his dance partner Susan McGovern who were crowned most improved couple followed by Tracy McTague and Darryl McFarland who were named most glamorous.

After the surprise Categories it was left to John to announce our third and second placed couples with firstly Claire Fanning and Ronan Tiernan placed third and Dennis Doonan and Siobhan McCartin placed second.

Now it was the time we were all waiting for, to see who would be crowned the Ballinamore Strictly Come Dancing Champions of 2017, envelope in hand John Lynch delivered the verdict we were all waiting for with Katie Duignan and Philip Casserly deservedly announced as our champions ! the last act of the evening was for the winning couple to take to the stage for one last time to woo us once again with their winning routine.

As with any event of this nature it's very difficult to pick a winner and each and every dancer who took to the stage was certainly a winner in all our eyes !

On the night we also held our annual prize draw with the following people being drawn out as winners !